California Department of Transportation

SANTA FE SPRINGS – Caltrans and regional transportation agencies today announced that construction will begin on a $110 million project on the Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5) that will significantly improve congestion and enhance safety on the heavily traveled corridor.

The I-5 Widening and Alondra Boulevard Bridge Project will add one carpool lane and one general purpose lane in each direction from North Fork Coyote Creek to Marquardt Avenue, a distance of nearly a mile. The project also includes reconstructing three bridges at Alondra and North Fork Coyote Creek to accommodate a wider freeway, redesigned ramp structures, and realigned Firestone Boulevard and Freeway Drive frontage roads.

The project is funded by federal, state, and local financing, including $99.4 million from Proposition 1B, California’s 2006 transportation bond. To date, the state has allocated more than $11 billion in Proposition 1B funds for transportation purposes statewide. Other sources include $9.1 million from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Proposition C, and $830,000 from the Federal Highway Administration.

“We are making a solid investment in this region’s transportation system that will provide jobs and reduce traffic congestion,” said Acting Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty.

More than 220,000 vehicles a day travel this section of the I-5 South Corridor. The Alondra Boulevard Bridge Project is expected to be completed by mid-2015.

“Motorists traveling the I-5 corridor will benefit from these much-needed improvements through decreased congestion and travel time," said Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles and Metro Board Chair.

Last fall, Caltrans began the first of six I-5 corridor improvement projects totaling more than $1 billion from the Los Angeles/Orange county line to the San Gabriel River

Freeway (I-605). The $380 million Carmenita Road Interchange Project includes widening for carpool and general purpose lanes within a one-mile segment from Alondra Boulevard to Shoemaker Avenue, a new 10-lane Carmenita Bridge concrete structure, plus ramp and frontage road improvements.

Caltrans’ local and regional transportation partners for the I-5 South Corridor Improvement Projects include Metro, the I-5 Consortium Cities Joint Powers Authority, and the Gateway Cities Council of Governments.

The contract for the $110 million Alondra Bridge project was awarded to C.C. Myers, Inc., of Rancho Cordova and Anaheim.